Panama - 11 May

11th May

We arrived at Flamenco Marina, Panama at 6pm. There was a wonderful welcome, as usual from Clipper, with lots of familiar faces on the dock. Once the formalities and “does and don’ts” from the race office were completed, we headed for steaks and beer. The marina is at the end of a causeway, built with the rubble from excavating the Panama Canal. It's a popular place for residents of Panama City to spend the weekend so has a seaside / holiday atmosphere about the place.

A bonus to the trip was having a couple of days off to sight see etc.

I found Panama City very interesting and the people friendly. The food, if you eat in Panamanian restaurants is excellent and cheap. Looking around the old town was delightful, but there is also lots of building work going on. They are keeping the façades of the old buildings and rebuilding the interiors with money from Unesco. It would be good to come back in 10 -15 years to see the result.

Transiting the canal yesterday was fascinating. The locks are like cathedrals; they are huge. We went through the first lock, three Clipper yachts and a tug boat, behind a “Panama canal” size ship, which fits in the lock with only about 60cms to spare each side. The locks all work on gravity, no pumps used to shift the water, so coming out of the three locks on the Atlantic side gave us the bazaar view of a ship in the adjacent lock to us going up, while we went down, so the ship ending up higher than us.

 

 

So we are now in the Caribbean Sea and currently in the marina, where boats going the other way, often have to wait two weeks to get a slot to go through. I don't think the staff in the marina hotel know what has hit them. There is a small hotel of just eight rooms, usually I suspect quite quiet, with private yachts just here waiting to transit the canal. Suddenly they are hit with 180 race crew, with big thirsts and appetites and they have done sterling work in trying to keep us all fed and watered.

The original plan we to leave at noon today, but DLL have a problem with their gearbox, so it’s now been postponed to tomorrow. It's been fine for me having a relaxing day today, but I suspect that the crews who have been here for two to three days already just can't wait to go. We really have to stay in the marina complex, as Colon is like a wild west city. We're told that you only go there with an armed guard.

So another night to be had sleeping in the heat and humidity with no cooling sea breeze, but I'm not upset to get another good meal and a long sleep before we start racing again. I'm hoping to sleep on deck; last night it wasn't possible as we had torrential rain.